The competition regulator’s decision to block Kerry Stokes’s Seven Group Holdings’s bid to have a crack at James Packer’s Consolidated Media tells us several things that point towards another repositioning of media power in this country.

But in accepting News’s offer, Stokes will now have an ample war chest of some $500 million with which to consider buying more media assets or more earth moving assets.

Media assets are historically cheap but many remain deeply structurally challenged. Stokes may now choose to concentrate on free-to-air. Indeed, some suggest that Seven management has already made a clear choice of Australian free to air over pay.

Stokes also has the advantage of diversity with mining services investments via WesTrac. The China investment boom may be peaking but is by no means over. Seven’s diversity of assets allows Stokes to deploy the cash where he best sees fits.

On the other side of the fence, Murdoch’s News Corp is the gorilla in the room in pay television in this country. Alongside News’s 70-odd per cent control of Australian newspaper assets, pay television is now firmly in Murdoch’s grip. Telstra has 50 per cent of Foxtel and the chairman.

With the Australian assets including pay television set to be hived off into the old asset basket in the News Corp demerger, the only thing missing from Murdoch’s suite of assets in Australia is a free to air broadcaster.

Son Lachlan is battling to make a go of Ten Network which is struggling for regeneration as its traditional target of young viewers grow and the next generation of kids are watching downloads and tablets rather than free-to-air.

Telstra is the unknown in the equation. While it has a 50 per cent stake in Foxtel, News will control the sports rights.

Telstra’s media intentions remain unclear. Does it want content to support its sliding Sensis directories business? For his part, Packer has been freed up to deploy his spare cash towards his gaming assets.

The sale of CMH, essentially a holding company for the Foxtel stake and the sports rights assets, spells the end of Packer’s media interests for now - aside from a small stake in Ten.

Packer has been at the forefront of media asset divestment over the past five years, selling television assets at the top of the market and correctly spotting that the fracturing of the audience would make life tough for incumbent media organisations.

As the dust settles on the latest shake up, Packer is as good as out of media and cashed up, Stokes is sitting on his hands and cashed up, and News is restructuring to ride it out.

The biggest names in Australian media are nimble and waiting for signs of a moment to strike.